WEB OF LIFE

In environmental education, the activity called ‘web of life’ reveals the interconnectedness of various animals, plants and elements of nature. A person poses as the sun in the centre of a ring of persons representing different elements of nature. One end of a ball of string is tied to the finger of the central person and then connected to the finger of a person who states his relationship with the sun. The string moves across various connections to create an intertwined web.

It is now physically possible to understand the interconnectedness between various players. When the facilitator presses any particular string, the strain is felt not only by the fingers of the directly connected; others too feel the pain since the pressed string passes on the tension to other connections that it criss-crosses.

Variants of the game display interconnectedness between communities, stakeholders and teams. In an interdependent world, our actions or those of others result in a related gain or pain for even seemingly unrelated players. The Buddhist concept of no self or no other, suggests that the world of interrelatedness needs mindfulness (be aware), compassion (shun selfish actions) and openness (accountability).

To be better at making the web of life sustainable for all, we must be responsible in our actions and responsive to positive and negative roles around us. After all, it is said so well that either we are part of the solution or we are part of the problem!

The web of life shows that our world is clearly interconnected…

May we BE BETTER to fulfil our responsibilities interrelated!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

WINDOW

In school, we heard the story of two men sharing a hospital room. The younger man’s ailment forced him to lie flat on his back all the time. Every morning and evening, the older man – whose bed was near the room's only window - would sit up and describe to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window... a park with a lovely lake, ducks and swans, children sailing their little boats, lovers sharing intimacy amidst flowers of every colour of the rainbow…

The young man would eagerly wait for his world to be enlivened by colour of the outside world. As the elder described in detail, the young man would close his eyes and imagine the scene. When he heard the description of a parade passing by, though he could not hear the band, he would see it in his mind’s eye. However deep down the young man was envious and resentful of the old man’s position next to the window.

In due course, when the old man died, the youth sought to be shifted to the bed with the view. The nurse was amused and told him that it would be useless as the only view he could see was of the ceiling as he was forced to lie flat on the bed. Nevertheless, he persisted and eventually the nurse shifted him next to the window. As soon as she left, he painfully propped himself up on one elbow. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a blank wall!

The lesson that endures in the above story is the about the choice to envision a colourful view in an otherwise blank window. So often when faced with a dead-end, we subscribe to pessimism. It is pertinent to note that we describe what we subscribe and inversely so as well. Hence to be better at overcoming a blank situation, we must choose to colour the view with the hues of hope and positive thinking… and such forward-looking vision is best fortified through sharing.

Let’s BE BETTER at how a situational void we may describe…

After all, every window holds only the view that we subscribe!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

SILENCE

A Zen tale tells of four friends who decided to observe a week of silence and meditation. However on the very first night, seeing the oil lamps grow dim, one of them blurted out, ‘the lamps require oil!’ Instantly his neighbour remarked, ‘We are not supposed to speak!’ The third friend was livid, ‘You idiots, why are you talking?’ The fourth person calmly commented, ‘I am the only one who has not spoken.’

Though the greatest ordeal of the one who can talk is to keep silent, silence in social interaction is not too difficult if we are disinterested in prolonging dialogue or if we are listening by choice. Also, we are easily forced into silence if we are in a situation of weakness due to our actions, circumstances or a submissive attitude. But the litmus test is if we fail to honour our own resolve to keep silent.

In the Zen fable, while one cannot resist reacting to the dying lamps, the others cannot resist commenting upon somebody else’s actions. The first could have silently set right his situation. The rest fell prey to the temptation of being judgemental. Commonly, all four of them were too full of themselves and hence they broke their own silence.

Nevertheless, selfish silence is not welcome. Silence should not result in turning a deaf ear or a blind eye or be an excuse for being indifferent or insensitive. Instead, we must use the power of silence to listen… to introspect… to process ideas… to clarify thoughts… to understand ourselves as well as others. Above all, we must guard our silence from the pitfalls of being judgementally reactive.

The value of our proactive sensitivity will BE BETTER

If our silence is not pulled down by a reactive fetter!

- Pravin K. Sabnis